Front Range
SnowpackIan Fowler · May 17, 2024 · Front Range
Weather
Wind kept surfaces cool throughout the day.
Snowpack
Winds kept the surface firm today and at 2pm on southerly slopes there was only about 2-5cm of ski penetration and the corn skiing was pretty fantastical. The only places with deeper penetrations and localized collapses were close to rocks and scrub. The snowpack is still a ways from a full spring snowpack with plenty of cold rounded snow in between various layers and crusts. Southerly aspects had less prominent crusts and did not have any evidence of pooling water. Northerly aspects were a different story probably because this is the first warm up they have seen in multiple weeks. On all northerly aspects I observed there was a prominent crust layer down about 40 to 60cm that had rounds above and was starting to collect a little water above and a second ice layer down around 50 to 70cm. These layers will be ones to watch for potential wet slab avalanches. Thankfully there were no prominent dust layers observed in any of the 6 snow profiles I observed.